


The Hunt

by Wallwalker



Series: HSO Bonus Round-Up [10]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dystopia, F/M, Gore, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-24
Updated: 2012-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-08 10:30:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/442227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gore, pain, and unexpected reunions. Just another day on the most popular reality-vid culling program.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hunt

Your scythes rip through the throat of another trained prowlbeast, spilling ridiculous amounts of olive blood on the ground. The monster gurgles as it collapses, fur matted with grime and blood and scars, eyes glazing over as it bleeds out.

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you have been fighting for your life for days. You barely sleep anymore, and it's a good thing that you're better at going without sleep than most of your old friends, because at least there's one silver lining to this whole mess. You were the only one that got caught out of your cohort, at least that you know of, and you can handle this; you trained as a Threshcutioner for most of your life.

"Only one of you will make it out of this alive," the blueblood running this mess had said to the bunch of you, fifty or so scared culling-targets who'd been selected for the games. He'd been so proud and haughty and full of himself, gesturing wildly, but you hadn't been able to keep your eyes off of the silent Subjuggalator who'd stared at you with dead eyes. He was the one who scared the grubsauce out of you, maybe because you could see something of what one of your friends might turn out to be someday in his eyes. "If you are able to prove that you are worthy of your status, you will be permitted to serve Her Imperious Condescension. Fail, and you will die."

You and the rest of the unlucky weirdos had been tossed into this labyrinth and given weapons, and never given the chance to even speak to each other. You hadn't tried; you'd spent most of your time trying to eavesdrop on the guards, not that it had done much for you - the only remotely thing you'd caught was that another fifty trolls were being carted in from somewhere to join you, just to make things more interesting. Not what you'd call good news.

You'd barely seen the rest of them since you'd arrived; you'd gone out of your way to avoid them. You can fight animals easily enough, but you don't think you could kill another poor bastard who just wants to survive. It's cowardly, sure, but maybe you can just outlast everyone else. Maybe -

A hissing sound tips you off, and you manage to throw yourself aside before the slitherfang strikes. It misses you completely, its mouth snapping shut in seeming irritation, and you have just enough time to scramble to your feet before it's facing you again. You've heard about these little fuckers, you think with a sinking feeling. One strike, and then your arm swells up and your body starts rotting black from the inside.

It's about to strike. You lift your scythes, knowing it won't make a lick of difference - the thing is long but skinny, and fast, and there's just not much to hit -

\- and before you can do much of anything, the thing's head is neatly bisected by... a chainsaw??

Well, it looks like one, for a second anyway. And the gobs of yellow flesh and blood flying around are certainly convincing. You squeeze your eyes shut, but that doesn't help; you feel the pelting of wet snake flesh and bits of bone striking your face. Somehow it's not as easy as when you do it; the scythes cut fast and kill quick and clean, and this is anything but -

"Karkat," a voice says in your ear, and you're being papped all of a sudden, a very warm hand against your cheek. "Karkat? Are you all right?"

"I... what. What?" You open your eyes. "Kanaya," you say, staring into a pair of shifting rainbow-colored eyes. "No. You're dead, damn it, you're not supposed to be - I wasn't supposed to -"

"Hush, now," she says. "We have to go. It's not safe here."

 _It's not safe anywhere,_ you want to say, _don't you get that?_ But you don't; you let yourself be led along by a troll you saw killed sweeps ago, your mind completely on autopilot.

It's at least an hour before she'll answer any of your questions - when the sun has risen, and the two of you are huddling in a cave that probably has a camera or two in it to see who's holing up where during the day. Hopefully they're not going to tell the rest of the poor bastards.

"You should rest, Karkat," Kanaya says. "I am perfectly capable of guarding us until sunset."

"Wait," you say, as she guides you to a conveniently-placed pile of dead leaves. "Can't you tell me... I mean, you're dead. You had a hole in your stomach from that accident -"

"Yes, well," she says, looking ruefully at her pale, glowing skin. "I cannot say that you are entirely wrong."

"Oh," you say. Of course. "Rainbow Drinker, huh? Figures."

"Some would call it poetic." She smiles slightly.

"Yeah, well... did you have to disappear on us? I mean, you won't believe this, but we actually did miss you, you know."

"I was aware of the possibility." She shook her head. "When I first became a Rainbow Drinker, the hunger for blood was very... unpredictable, for lack of better terms. I was afraid that I would lose control and harm someone that I cared about. It took some time before I felt comfortable with my control of my urges, and I was hoping to come back, but I am afraid that things did not happen the way I expected them to."

"Do they fucking ever?" you ask, and a sick laugh bubbles up in your throat. It all made sense, of course. You wish it didn't, but it did. She thought she had it down, and she got careless, and one of the culling drones caught her. They don't care much for dead trolls running around and eating the live ones.

"Karkat," she says, and takes off her ridiculous sash. She wraps it around you as best she can; it's not really wide enough, but it's something. "Sleep. Now."

"Thank you," you say, and relax into a long-needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> HSO Bonus Round 1. Pale Kanaya/Karkat, Splatterpunk + Comedy of Manners (although I think I failed at the last part.) Also, I honestly didn't intend this to harken to any other source materials; it just sort of happened.  
> Will this continue? I honestly don't know. Didn't have time to write everything that came to mind at the time, but now I might.


End file.
